The Bonobo Sisterhood

June 27, 2022
Rosenfeld, founding director of the Gender Violence Program at Harvard Law School, debuts with an innovative yet underdeveloped analysis of the legal and social structures that enable gender-based violence and how to overcome them. Tracing the roots of gender inequality to the “patriarchal order,” she uses the example of the bonobo, a species of great ape with whom humans share 98.7% of their DNA, as an alternative model. Bonobo society, Rosenfeld explains, is peaceful and egalitarian, with females banding together to protect each other in the rare instance of male aggression. In human society, however, male alliances are prioritized, resulting in a system that fails to protect women. For example, Rosenfeld details Supreme Court decisions prohibiting Congress from “giv women a civil right to be free from gender-based violence” and dismissing a woman’s lawsuit against a police department for failing to enforce a restraining order against her estranged husband—who kidnapped and murdered their three daughters. Through these and other harrowing stories, Rosenfeld builds a persuasive case that the law is slanted against women, but her call for women to “Be Bonobo!” and form alliances to protect themselves, foster self-worth, and fight misogyny fails to fully reckon with the social forces at play. This well-intentioned call for change falls short. Agent: Gail Ross, Ross Yoon Agency.

August 1, 2022
How to fight patriarchy. In her debut book, legal scholar and lawyer Rosenfeld, founding director of Harvard Law School's Gender and Violence Program, paints a dark and dispiriting picture of a patriarchal society that subjects women to abuse and coercion, denying them recourse to protection under the law. In contrast, she celebrates the female alliances demonstrated by bonobos, humans' close cousins, who successfully thwart male sexual aggression. By emulating what she calls a Bonobo Sisterhood, Rosenfeld argues, women can undermine patriarchy. Drawing on myriad legal cases, testimony, and anecdotes, the author identifies the male temper syndrome and assumption of male entitlement as primary causes of women's victimization. Men rarely face consequences for domestic violence, while women must surmount considerable obstacles even to get an order of protection, which abusers easily evade. "Under US law," she points out, "you have no right to enforcement of your order of protection, even if you live in a state that has a specific law mandating such enforcement." Too often, a woman cannot find a way to hide from her aggressor; battered women's shelters, even when available, are inadequate and disruptive. "When a woman leaves her abuser," the author writes, "we know that he will stalk her, reassault her, and do everything in his power to bring her back under his control." Rosenfeld examines the history of marriage and rape laws, crafted by and favoring men. For centuries, women could not bring charges of marital rape because wives were deemed the property of their husbands. The author also considers the consequences of hook-up culture, which normalizes compliance sex, "in which verbal and nonverbal cues go ignored and the woman acquiesces" and which often follow sexual scripts--including choking--that men have gleaned from pornography. Self-defense training, Rosenfeld asserts, should be part of an inclusive, empowering sisterhood in which women will stand up for and with one another. Well-informed, insightful, and, sadly, timely.

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Starred review from August 1, 2022

Through the study and inspiration of bonobo monkeys--humans share 98.7 percent of their DNA--Rosenfeld (founding dir., Gender Violence Program; Harvard Law Sch.) calls for a women revolution and societal reform. In this book, she describes the monkeys' strong, female coalitions, found in forests south of the Congo River, and how they band together to fight off male aggressors of their species. The author presents decades of bonobo research by evolutionary biologists and primatologists, cross-sectioned with statistics, firsthand accounts, and legal history. By addressing human campaigns for self-defense, the status quo of a male-dominated society, and promoting the physical and psychological benefits of an alliance through sisterhood, Rosenfeld imagines a world where women somewhat mimic the female bonobos by answering each other's call for protection against male supremacy, separation assault, sexual violence, street harassment, and what the author calls the "male protection racket." Completely original, thoroughly researched, and as heartbreaking as it is inspiring, this book ushers in a new age of women alliance by spotlighting women's true strength and power in numbers. VERDICT Recommend to readers of Soraya Chemaly's Rage Becomes Her and Deborah Tuerkheimer's Credible.--Alana R. Quarles

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 29, 2022
Female bonobos live free from all sexual violence. They dictate the terms of their sexual encounters and when they rebuff a male's advances, he listens, lest he run the risk of angering the bonobo sisterhood. Rosenfeld, Director of the Gender Violence Program at Harvard Law, insists if women adopt the main principles of the bonobos--watching out for all females as if they were family and physically coming to their aid when needed--women may also live free from male violence. She deftly details how the law discriminates against women and, in fact, was made to protect men and "their castles." For example, she parses the stand your ground law, comparing George Zimmerman being let off after murdering teenage Trayvon Martin to a woman receiving 20 years in prison after firing a warning shot when her estranged ex-husband invaded her home. She creates a compelling case about the current affairs of women's issues but her overly simplistic solutions--forming female alliances, taking self-defense, creating all-female safe spaces--are not new and may leave readers wanting.

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